PITTSBURGH — Deeming it a starting point in approving the next decade's Congressional district boundaries in Pennsylvania, Republicans on a key committee rubber-stamped a map Wednesday that will now need approval by both chambers of the Legislature and Gov. Tom Wolf.
The House State Government Committee, in a 14-11 vote carried by GOP support, officially approved a bill establishing Congressional redistricting and the splitting of Pennsylvania into 17 districts, a once-a-decade process that determines who is represented by who in the U.S. House.
Attached to the bill was an actual map, intended to kick off conversations in the Legislature — and amendments — that will eventually lead to a final product to send to the governor's desk, GOP officials said.
The map chosen by the committee is an adapted version of one drawn by advocate Amanda Holt. Republican leaders of the committee made minor changes to Ms. Holt's original map, said Chairman Seth Grove, a York Republican, in order to make districts more compact and to respond to public feedback.
Meanwhile, Democrats on the committee said they didn't have a say in the process and didn't have access to all the maps submitted by members of the public — urging the majority party to shelve the bill and to work collaboratively on a better map.
Democratic members were joined by state Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, a Lehigh/Berks Republican, in voting against the map. Mackenzie said that rather than handing over the process to the full chambers, their committee should continue to hear directly from citizens on the proposed map.
"We should maintain the ability to continue to get public comment here before the State Government Committee, the same committee that's traveled around the state," Mackenzie said.
Grove countered that the map will be on the committee's redistricting website and open for public comment until the House returns to full session in January. He said it's been a primary focus of the committee to ignore partisan data in developing a map, and touted its process of holding hearings, making web tools and taking public input.
This comes days after leading fair redistricting advocates criticized the committee for "lagging the field" in proposing a congressional map. David Thornburgh, president and CEO of the good government group Committee of Seventy, said a 30-day public comment period on any map should be the "bare minimum."
